Psycho II (dir. Richard Franklin, 1983)
Richard Franklin directed the notable Oz-spolitation films Road Games and Patrick, as well as the wonderfully goofy FX2: The Deadly Art of Illusion.
So it’s been 22 years, and I’m having trouble thinking of a film series (not counting remakes) that had that long a gap in between sequels, especially when it featured actors from the original in key roles. Oh wait. I have one. 30 years passed between Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 miniseries Scenes from a Marriage, and the 2003 theatrical follow-up Saraband featuring the same actors and characters. Um… That’s all I got. If you can think of any others, let me know. Oh wait. I thought of another. 59 years elapsed between Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia 2000 (1999). But that didn’t really feature any of the same actors.
Since Psycho II opens with Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) being released from an insane asylum after 22 years, and it’s 1983, it’s tempting to call the film an allegory about the Ronald Reagan-era cutbacks to the mental health system at large. The early ’80s was a time of massive asylum closures, and many mentally ill people took to the streets, causing a huge surge in the homeless population. Psycho II banks on these closures by letting one of cinema’s most famous psychos, Norman Bates, back into the world, supposedly rehabilitated according to his shrink (Robert Loggia). Does Psycho II have a political message? Actually, aside from one line of dialogue, I would say not. I have a feeling that Universal, noticing that teen slasher flicks were making tons of money (there had already been three Friday the 13ths, and three Halloweens by 1983) decided to throw their hat in the ring with a character they already owned. Hence the growth of a standalone horror classic being artificially inflated into a franchise.
This is not altogether a bad thing, as Psycho II is not the horrible cash-in you would expect it to be. It’s still not a great film (how could it be, living in the shadow of it predecessor?), but it at least tries to have a big twist akin to the first. So Norman is let out of an asylum, and moves directly back into his old house. This is to the chagrin of Lila Loomis (Vera Miles) reprising her role from the original. Dennis Franz has turned the Bates Motel into a sleazy flophouse in the intervening 22 years, and Norman, trying to be a prim good boy, fires him. Norman is set up with a job in a local diner, where he befriends Mary (Meg Tilly) a pretty young thing who will eventually end up as his roommate. There is also a minor character named Emma Spool, a kindly old lady who also works at the diner. I only mention her because she’ll play into the big twist. I warned you: I’m giving everything away.
Norman is trying to stay away from knives, but seems to be slipping back into his old ways. At one point he clutches his head and screams “It’s starting again!” Oh yes it is. He begins to hear his dead mother speaking to him again, especially when he ogles Meg Tilly in the shower. Is Norman going crazy again, or is someone else posing as his mother? His mother, by the way, is finally named in this film. Her name is Norma.
Meg Tilly is fine enough and certainly fetching in the role of Mary, but most of the film is predicated on her eventual romantic attraction to Norman. Anthony Perkins is not an unattractive fellow, but he was already 50 when he shot Psycho II, and the age difference between he and the 22-year-old Tilly is noticeable and distractingly inappropriate. Tilly wasn’t yet born when Psycho was released.
The big twist: It turns out that Norman is indeed going a little mad – we all go a little mad sometimes – but is being driven to madness by Vera Miles who has been stalking about Bates manor dressed as Mrs. Bates in order to push Norman over the edge and get him re-committed. She wants revenge for the death of Marion. She has even been occasionally killing people for fun and then hiding the bodies, including a pair of pot-smoking teens who sneak into Bates Manor for sexytimes. It’s the teenagers’ deaths that make Psycho II feel like a slasher cash-in. Additional twists: It turns out Meg Tilly is Vera Miles’ daughter (and Marion’s niece), and the two of them are in on the drive-Norman-mad scheme together. Yes, we’ve seen this kind of thing before in films like Gaslight and Diabolique and The Haunting, but whatever. Oh shoot. I just gave away the endings of Gaslight and Diabolique and The Haunting. Sorry ’bout that. Anyway, eventually Vera Miles is stabbed in the mouth (!), Mary is taken away, and Norman is left in peace again, a bit shakier and only slightly worse for wear.
One more twist, and this one seemed tacked-on to me: Emma Spool, the old lady from the diner, appears at Norman’s door after everything has been resolved. She reveals to Norman that she is actually his real mother. Norma Bates was originally Norma Spool, Emma’s sister. Emma had Norman, and gave the baby to Norma to raise. When Norman killed his mother, he was really killing his aunt. Now Norman can get it right, and he whacks Emma in the head with a shovel, puts her back in his old mother’s room, and finally gets back to his old ways of dressing like her and speaking in her voice.
The film is bland, the twists are arbitrary, and there aren’t any real tense or scary moments. It’s still way better than a lot of the Friday the 13th sequels, but how sad that I have to compare it to one of those, and have no impulse to compare it to the original Psycho.
Since we have a franchise on on our hands, let’s move forward to another bland slasher…
